Thread: Time's up on Iran

Times up surely



Reuters Parisa Hafezi


President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Iran would enrich uranium to a higher level itself, apparently ruling out a U.N.-brokered deal meant to minimise the risk of Tehran producing material for atomic bombs.

Western diplomats said Iran accepted in principle two months ago a plan for it to send 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France to be further enriched, then converted into fuel for Iran's nuclear medicine programme.

The West hoped that farming out much of Iran's LEU reserve for this humanitarian purpose would minimise the risk of Tehran refining the material to high purity suitable for nuclear arms -- a suspicion kindled by Iran's record of nuclear secrecy and stonewalling of U.N. atomic watchdog investigations.

But Tehran has since retreated from the deal, demanding what Western diplomats call killer amendments that would keep its LEU stockpile intact. Some Iranian officials suggested Iran could enrich the LEU itself from 3.5 percent to the 20 percent level needed to yield fuel rods for Iran's medical isotope reactor.

Ahmadinejad was more explicit. "By the grace of God, the Iranian nation will produce 20 percent enriched uranium and anything it needs (itself)," he said in a televised speech in the central city of Isfahan. He did not give a timetable.

If it goes ahead, Iran may stoke suspicions that its eventual nuclear goal is warheads, since it lacks the technology to fabricate medical reactor fuel from higher-grade LEU. For atom bombs, uranium must be enriched to 90 percent purity.

Iran could be enriching to 20 percent "within months" after changing the settings of its centrifuge machines, said David Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security, which tracks suspected nuclear proliferators.

"Once at 20 percent, they'd be 90 percent of the way to 90 percent enrichment in terms of the time it takes," he said.

"Meanwhile, for (the sake of) legitimacy, they'll say they are developing technology for the reactor fuel line. But concerns will rise since they will continue to stockpile LEU, and perhaps siphon some of it off for the civilian reactor."

Iran has become more defiant of pressure for nuclear restraint since the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors rebuked it on Friday for covertly building a second enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom, in addition to its IAEA-monitored one at Natanz, and demanding a construction halt.

"ILLEGAL RESOLUTION"

"Under pressure of a few superficially powerful countries ... the (IAEA) passed an illegal resolution against the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad added, alluding to the six world powers that sponsored the IAEA resolution.

Tehran said on Sunday it would build 10 more uranium enrichment sites in retaliation for the resolution, which sailed through by a 25-3 margin with rare Russian and Chinese support.

Ahmadinejad ruled out any further talks with the six powers, which they have sought to try to rein in Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for trade benefits.

He also said Israel could not do a "damn thing" to stop the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is a front to build bombs. Iran says it is enriching uranium only for power plant fuel, not for nuclear warheads.

Israel, which Iran refuses to recognise, has said a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence and points to Ahmadinejad's calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

"The Zionist regime (Israel) and its (Western) backers can not do a damn thing to stop Iran's nuclear work," Ahmadinejad told a crowd to chants of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

His remarks were likely to extend a fresh spiral in tensions between Iran and the West.

Tehran could face harsher international sanctions in the first half of next year or last-resort Israeli military action if it fails to create confidence in its nuclear aspirations.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington wanted Iran's nuclear dispute to be resolved through diplomatic negotiations but has not ruled out other options

"The Zionist regime (Israel) and its (Western) backers can not do a damn thing to stop Iran's nuclear work," Ahmadinejad told a crowd to chants of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

Any wonder why the world thinks of him as the pathetic little assclown he is.

Got nukes?):P:P

I say screw the sanctions and just turn his lights out with a few well directed JDAM's at his own residence and the rest of the Assahollahs lackies as well. Pathetic Idoits!

No doubt the best he had to offer humanity ran down his mothers legs at conception.)

Originally Posted by Zinja

Its just a smokescreen Drednought for the nefarious activity behind the scenes. They want to create ghost sites to mask the clandestine dimension of their work.

Maybe , maybe not

Iran expects to be using a new generation of nuclear centrifuges, which it has been testing for about two years, for full-scale uranium enrichment by March 2011, its nuclear chief said on Friday.

Ali Akbar Salehi made the prediction in remarks published by the semi-official Fars news agency. Tehran is operating small numbers of the new machines at a pilot enrichment plant.

"We are producing new generation of centrifuges named IR3 and IR4 ... We plan to use them by 2011 after eliminating problems and defects," Salehi told Fars.

Iran is at odds with the West over its declared plans to use enriched uranium to generate electricity, a programme the United States and European allies fear is a cover to develop the ability to produce atomic bombs.

The Islamic Republic said in October it planned to use a new generation of faster centrifuges to refine uranium at its newly revealed enrichment site near the central city of Qom.

Nuclear experts say the new model of centrifuges is capable of doubling or tripling the output rate of the P-1 machine, a breakdown-prone model from the 1970s which Iran now uses at its main Natanz enrichment complex.

Enriched uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants and, if refined further, provide material for atomic bombs.

Salehi said Iran now had "over 6,000 active centrifuges."

TECHNICAL GLITCHES

In a report last month, the U.N. nuclear agency said 3,936 centrifuges were enriching uranium at Natanz, a 15 percent drop from February, while another 4,756 were installed but were not producing enriched uranium.

Analysts said Iran seemed to be having technical problems, but Iran says it will not shelve its enrichment activities.

"The new machines don't have the vibration or breakage problems of the P-1. Iran has had trouble running the P-1s at full speed," said David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank which tracks nuclear proliferation.

"We think they have a lot of broken P-1s. Iran may have decided they can't solve the P-1's problems and that's why they are announcing this today," he told Reuters.

"They would have every incentive to move up to IR2s, IR3s and so on. On balance, this is troubling news."

Iran angered the West on Wednesday by test-firing a missile called the Sejil 2. An earlier version was tested in May.

Washington and its allies saw the test as a violation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on Tehran to curb its nuclear research and ballistic missile activities.

In October, six world powers offered a deal under which Iran would send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad for conversion into fuel for a nuclear medicine reactor in Tehran.

However, Tehran has backed away from it, raising the prospect of additional sanctions. The United States has set a year-end deadline for Iran to accept the U.N.-drafted deal.

"We prefer to buy fuel for our reactor ... deadlines can not be set for an independent country like Iran," Salehi told the student news agency ISNA.

Analysts say political turmoil in Iran since a disputed presidential election in June has further clouded prospects for a resolution of the seven-year-old nuclear dispute